Elfen Lied -- Alternative Possibilities
by Otago Otaku
Summary: There are important gaps in the canonical story. What happened to Lucy/Kaede during the long, miserable years in the "Research Facility?" What comes after? Accepting the chronicled events as our starting point, what else can we imagine happening? Perhaps it might have been like this...


ELFEN LIED CHAPTER 0, Page 7 of 7

**Elfen Lied Chapter 0**

The German doctor stood patiently while the guard entered the third security code. His assistant, a young Japanese woman, stood beside him, looking up at the vast steel door. He turned to her and said, "You just wait here for now. We'll see how it goes first; it may take some time before we make any progress at all."

"Okay Doctor," she said, not trying to hide her relief. "I'll be right here when you come out."

The door opened. The guard turned and said, "This way, Doctor. This is my colleague, Murakami-san; he's the inside guard. He'll accompany you."

"Thank you," said the doctor, in tolerable Japanese. "Good morning, Murakami-san."

"Good morning, Doctor. Please come inside." The doctor entered the large chamber. "You understand the safety protocols?"

"I do. And I've signed the waiver. Relax, Murakami-san; I won't get myself killed on your watch."

"All right." The guard pointed to the apparatus in the middle of the room. "There she is."

The doctor advanced towards the metal frame; high above was a small figure, bound securely in cloth wrappings and wearing a helmet. The figure's head turned towards him as he approached. "Good morning," he said. "I understand you are the young lady known as Lucy?"

"They call me that, yes," the figure answered in a low voice. "Who are you?"

"My name," he said, reaching into his pocket, "is Doctor Emil Feisler. I understand you can read?"

"I can."

"Then please read this. It will help you remember my name." He held up a card.

Lucy's face would have shown surprise, had it not been hidden in the helmet. The card showed the doctor's name, printed in Hiragana, and beneath it a hand-written message: _They are probably listening. Don't say anything you don't want them to hear_. She gave a brief nod, and the doctor pocketed the card. "Why," she asked, does it say 'Faizura Emiiru'?"

"The German way is to place the given name before the family name," he said. "Feisler is my family name; Emil is the name my mother gave me."

"So, Doctor Emil Feisler, what do you want?"

"You can pronounce it correctly; you have a good ear. What I want is to talk to you. To see if I can help you."

"Help me? Why should you want to help me? When has anyone here ever tried to help me?"

"As you may be able to tell, I'm not from around here," said Feisler. "I don't have anything to do with this – institution. The way you've been treated is not something I can approve of. It's also not something I have any control over." He paused. "May I sit down?"

"I can't stop you," she said indifferently.

"No, but I am your guest, and it's polite to ask. Good manners are important, aren't they?" He turned, walked to the desk near the door, picked up the chair next to it, carried it back to the metal cage and sat down. "You see, Miss Lucy, I'm here because I was able to get introduced to an official in your government. He told me about your situation here. I convinced him that I might be able to do something to help you. I'm what's called a paediatric psychiatrist. Do you know what that means?"

"No. Should I?"

"It means that I try to find medical treatments for children who do unusual things."

"Ah. You're a crazy person's doctor. You think I'm a specimen, do you? You're here because you think I might be interesting? Do you want to do your own experiments on me?"

"No. I have other reasons." The doctor pulled something else from his pocket and held it up. "Can you see this?" he asked.

It was a picture of a girl in a wheelchair. Her flaxen hair was braided over the top of her head and her cornflower-blue eyes seemed to sparkle with joy. "Who is she?" said Lucy.

"She was my daughter, Ursel. This picture was taken nearly thirty years ago, when she was seven years old. Her school was doing a play of _Hansel and Gretel_; she was playing Gretel.

"Ursel was born with a heart defect. A week after this was taken, she had a heart attack and died. There was nothing anyone could do to help her." He smiled sadly at the photograph, then put it carefully away. "Her condition was a genetic one, you see, and surgery couldn't treat it.

"Now I don't know anything about surgery; I only know about the mind. There was nothing I could do to help my Ursel, however much I wished I could. But after that, I started to wonder if some of the behavioural problems that people say are hopeless might be caused by genetic factors. I wondered if children who are shut away from the world might be treatable after all. I wanted to help those children if I could. I didn't think we should just give up because the problem was in someone's DNA. I started to focus on children whose problems were genetic.

"I understand that your problems are genetic. I think you're a girl who needs help. And I might be able to help you."

"How? Don't you know that if you get too close, I'll tear you to pieces?"

"I know you have abilities that scare people," said Feisler. "And that's why they've locked you up in this – thing. But I'd like to see you get out of it."

"Really? Why don't you ask the guard to let me out? See if he'll do it?"

"I know it won't happen today," said Feisler. "But would you like to know what my goals are?"

"I'm sure you want to tell me," said Lucy.

"My first goal is for you to trust me with your real name."

"Why should I do that?"

"Because nobody here knows it. They call you 'Lucy' for their own reasons. Names are powerful and wonderful things. If you tell me your name, I'll know you trust me.

"Second, on a future visit, I'd like you to not be restrained like that. I'd like you to be able to sit at a table, write with a pencil, read books, eat normal food, wear normal clothes. I'd like you to be able to study and learn like other girls your age.

"Third, I'd like a chance to take you out of this place for a day, or maybe an overnight visit. I'd like you to see sunshine and growing things again. I'd like you to feel the rain on your face. I'd like you to be able to visit parks or museums or theatres."

"Or the zoo?" Underneath the scornful indifference there was a note of longing in her voice.

"Definitely the zoo. I'd like you to be able to pick up chopsticks, or a knife and fork, without anyone being afraid of how you might use them. I'd like you to meet my wife, the best German cook in the world, and let her make you Wiener schnitzel and apfelstrudel. I'd like you to enjoy a hot bath and sleep in a real bed with clean sheets. And when that's over, and you have to come back to this – place – you will know that it won't have to be forever; that there is hope for you yet.

"And my final goal is for you to ultimately go free from here; and then you will be safe, and so will the people you meet. You will be able to study, to travel, to have a job, to meet people; maybe even to someday meet a special young man, who will love you regardless of any skull projections you might have."

"That can't ever happen." Her voice was heavy with sadness.

"You'd be surprised what can happen."

"It can't. You see, I've already met that young man. And I – I did something terrible." Feisler looked at her; he was not altogether surprised to see the tears flowing from beneath her helmet. "He can never love me now. Not after – not after – what I did." She was crying freely now. "I ruined his life. I ruined everything. Oh, how he must hate me now!"

Feisler waited a moment. _This is the breakthrough_, he thought. _I never thought it would come this quickly_. As Lucy's sobs began to subside, he said, "Ah, my poor child. I cannot begin to imagine how much sadness you've already had in your life. But I want you to know that whatever you've done, you deserve better than this." Lucy looked at him; she was surprised to see tears in the doctor's eyes as well. "Well, I think this is about as long as they're going to let me stay on this visit. May I come back and see you again tomorrow?"

Lucy took a deep breath, almost a gasp. "Yes please. I think I'd like that." He stood up. "Doctor, do you trust me?" she asked.

"I do," he said. "Why do you ask?"

"Do you know what I could do if you put your hands through the bars of this cage?"

"I've been told you could do frightening things."

"You've been told correctly. I could seize you and drag you into the cage and kill you. Or I could rip your arm off. Or I could just hold your hand."

"Could you? Tell me, can you actually feel with those – vectors, so they call them – or just exert force with them?"

"Oh, I can feel. Better than you can with your flesh hands. That's why I asked if you trust me. If you do, I'd like you to come and reach through the bars." As Feisler hesitated, she added, "You want me to trust you. Shouldn't you show that you trust me?"

"If I tried to do that now," Feisler said, "I'm sure Murakami-san would stop me. It's outside the protocols I agreed to, you see. I'll have to ask permission."

"I see." Lucy sounded disappointed.

"Well, it's time for me to go. Oh, there's one more thing I wanted you to see." Lucy was looking at his face, and was surprised to see him wink. "Murakami-san, could you please call my assistant in for just a moment? She has something I want to show Lucy."

"Yes sir," said Murakami. He turned and punched in the exit code on the door.

Feisler took two rapid strides and thrust his arm through the bars of the cage. "I trust you, Lucy-chan," he said. "Please don't let me down. It will be too hard to explain and they won't let me visit you again."

Murakami drew his weapon. "Stop!" he shouted. "Get away from there!"

"Stay back!" said the doctor. "Don't interfere!" He felt a gentle pressure on his upturned palm; he looked at Lucy and smiled. "Thank you Lucy-chan," he said. "You've justified my faith in you."

"It's Kaede," she whispered. "My name is Kaede."

Half an hour later, Room Monitor Kurama met with Director Kakuzawa. "So he did that, did he?" the director growled. "The meddlesome old fool."

"It was a risk," said Kurama, "but he does seem to have made a connection with Lucy that no-one else has."

"Yes." The director turned his back and gazed out the tall window. "And that's not something we want."

"Don't you want her to connect with people? It can only make her less dangerous."

"It'll make her less useful to me," the director retorted. "It would have been better if she'd killed him. Well, perhaps this can be useful after all. Kurama, when's that government flunky coming?"

"In two weeks' time."

"Very well. We'll let the stupid German doctor keep visiting until then. Move up the schedule for Lucy's relocation; make it the same day as the vice minister's visit. We won't tell the doctor where she's gone. Kurama, a week after the move, you can tell Lucy that the doctor knows where she is but hasn't bothered to come back. That'll make her feel betrayed again."

"But sir, that's not right—"

"It's my final decision. Make sure you carry it out, Kurama."


End file.
